. This Core (RDC) will utilize the OAIC activities and related RRCs to train new investigators from a variety of disciplines to perform gerontological research, with a major emphasis on the maintenance of functional capacity and the prevention or reversal of frailty. Investigators involved in the research of intervention studies, IS-1 and IS-2, and/or in directing the RRCs, and other colleagues with expertise relevant to the goals of this OAIC, will serve as mentors to train young investigators in geriatrics, gerontology and related areas who are interested in research relevant to maintenance of functional independence of the elderly. Specific areas in which the mentors in this RDC have expertise include: gerontology; geriatrics; preventive medicine; exercise physiology; cardiovascular physiology and clinical cardiology; physical therapy; occupational therapy; social services; endocrinology and metabolism; osteoporosis; health behavior research; cost effectiveness analysis and health care utilization; clinical trials; biostatistics; stable isotope methodology; cell biology; free radical biology and oxidative damage. The wide range of backgrounds of the mentors in this RDC ranging, for example, from expertise in cell biology to applied physiology and from gerontology to clinical geriatrics and cost- effectiveness analysis, is to make possible research training in the RDC to promote linkages between mechanistic and outcome research. The research training of the RDC will also have a didactic component designed to expand the academic curriculum for providing new investigators with the information base and the research skills necessary to design, implement, analyze, and publish results of studies in the broad areas of geriatrics and gerontology that are relevant to the maintenance of functional independence. The major emphasis of the research training will be to prepare young investigators to develop interventions that can be applied to the prevention and reversal of frailty. The RDC will support young investigators in order to provide them with protected time for their research and with funds for pilot studies. This research training component of the OAIC will be supported by the RDC and coordinated and supervised by the RDC leader and associate leader. The goal is to increase the number of investigators conducting research in areas of geriatrics and gerontology that are relevant to maintenance of functional independence of the elderly. Such areas include intervention studies, clinical trials, health services research, and basic research in biochemistry, physiology, and cell biology.